"Significant breakthrough": This sea salt battery has four times lithium's capacity

A very cheap sea salt battery could soon power your electronics.

Researchers have made a new, cheap battery that can store four times as much energy as lithium.

The battery is made of sodium-sulphur, which is a type of molten salt that can be made from sea water. It is cheaper and better for the environment than existing options.

The lead researcher, Dr. Shenlong Zhao from the University of Sydney, says it could be a "breakthrough" for clean energy.

He said, "Our sodium battery has the potential to save a lot of money while storing four times as much energy as lithium."

"This is a big step forward for developing renewable energy, which lowers costs in the long run but has had a lot of financial barriers to entry."

Why are batteries important for clean energy?
As the climate gets hotter, we need to switch to clean energy sources like wind and sun as soon as possible. But renewables aren't always as reliable as other sources, so batteries are needed to store this electricity for later use.

Lithium, graphite, and cobalt are all examples of rare earth metals that are used to make batteries.

In 2030, the EU will need 18 times as much lithium as it does now, and by 2050, it will need almost 60 times as much.

In September, Ursula von der Leyen, who is president of the European Commission, said that "lithium and rare earths will soon be more important than oil and gas."

But you have to pay for these metals. The process of getting lithium out of the ground can lead to water shortages, loss of biodiversity, damage to the way ecosystems work, and soil degradation.

Using evaporation ponds as an example, it takes about 2.2 million litres of water to make one metric tonne of the metal.

It's also expensive to mine on a large scale. The sea salt battery could be an alternative in this case.

What are molten salt batteries, and can they be made bigger or smaller?
The idea of molten salt batteries is not new. They have been around for 50 years, but they have been an "inferior alternative" with a short energy life cycle.

But this new one is not the same. Scientists changed the electrodes to make the sulphur react better, which is a key factor in determining how much it can store.

Sea salt could be used instead of lithium ion batteries because it can be found everywhere.

"When the sun isn't shining and the wind isn't blowing, we need high-quality storage solutions that don't cost the earth and are easy to get to on a local or regional level," Dr. Zhao said.

"Storage solutions made from abundant resources like sodium, which can be made from sea water, have the potential to make energy security better for everyone and let more countries join the shift toward decarbonization."

The researchers now want to improve the new cells and put them on the market.